Thanks Orange! And the excuse on their website is not cutting any ice with me neither.. The three people who came to watch me yesterday did not catch one glimpse and i lay the blame firmly at orange's doorstep. We had decided to use the text timing service to plan different viewing locations depending on split times i was acheiving. Well the only message they received was me phoning them after i had finished wondering where the hell they were. In hindsight it probably was a bit silly to plan viewing points using this technology but Orange had made such a song and dance about how good the service was going to be that i did not think for one minute that it would go 'pear shaped'. The text message from them at 5pm stating there was problems was not much help neither, how about sending that at 10am???? Maybe i will stick to the Berlin marathon where the German text service is tip top...
'gtir' that is a fair point but the fact is A) Orange had made a big issue that it would work, so the price is irrelevant. Anyone who has ran the Berlin marathon will know it works perfect every year.So there is no excuse.
Actually I wonder if it was the chip timing bods that got it wrong.
My published time was revised between 08:00 and 11:00 this morning from 3h28 to 3h26. It has made me look a fool with friends who were having a friendly bet on my finish time.
Did anyone else have this problem, I know I am not going mad because I cut and pasted the page.
Needless to say I believe the revised time is correct.
Sean - the initial times up this morning were clock times. They have since been updated with chip times. I assume in your case it took 2 mins for you to cross the line?
There must be some real red-faced Orange execs around today.
My friend was running and had an injury, so wasn't sure how he was going to get on. His wife was waiting at home for the texts and never got one, so after 2 hours was pretty worried. Fortunately, when he started walking at 17 miles he rang her and reassured her. But I bet she wasn't the only one who was a bit worried having heard nothing.
My parents missed me at their first point because they didn't think I'd passed 10K yet and the 'passed the start line' message they were given (via text) was wrong !
My family heard I had started at 10.30, at 10.34 they heard I had gone through 10k. According to Orange I haven't finished yet or gone past any subsequent points on the course.
(BTW - according to Orange my husband hasn't even started yet!)
I'm warning Orange now... I ticked the box on their website saying I wanted no further offers mailing to me... If I get even just one A5 flyer through my letterbox advertising their services - I'll get very very annoyed...!
The fact is they will struggle to do it next year because everyones opinion will be that it won't work.... wonder how much they paid London Marathon to do this promotion? It was a big waste whatever it was.
Orange messaging messed up my day. None of my supporters saw me at all because of wildly incorrect messages. Without the service we would have relied on conventional estimates and succeeded. Very upsetting as probably only opportunity to run the FLM.
Orange say it was the official timers
Does anyone know how I can contact the FLM to ask further explanation?
KC This is exactly what happened to me. I had people out looking for me and due to Orange they didnt catch one glimpse. If i had relied on conventional methods we would of arranged a set place.
It has nothing to do with network overload neiher because as Ian states, Berlin worked perfectly and i can vouch for that personally.
Comments
And the excuse on their website is not cutting any ice with me neither.. The three people who came to watch me yesterday did not catch one glimpse and i lay the blame firmly at orange's doorstep. We had decided to use the text timing service to plan different viewing locations depending on split times i was acheiving. Well the only message they received was me phoning them after i had finished wondering where the hell they were. In hindsight it probably was a bit silly to plan viewing points using this technology but Orange had made such a song and dance about how good the service was going to be that i did not think for one minute that it would go 'pear shaped'. The text message from them at 5pm stating there was problems was not much help neither, how about sending that at 10am????
Maybe i will stick to the Berlin marathon where the German text service is tip top...
"The Future is bright, the future is Orange"???
How about BOLL***S!!!
A) Orange had made a big issue that it would work, so the price is irrelevant.
Anyone who has ran the Berlin marathon will know it works perfect every year.So there is no excuse.
If cannot deliver the goods then don't promise!!!
If i did that in my job then i would be sacked!
Service was not brillo and got me unnecessarily worried about DNFs
My published time was revised between 08:00 and 11:00 this morning from 3h28 to 3h26. It has made me look a fool with friends who were having a friendly bet on my finish time.
Did anyone else have this problem, I know I am not going mad because I cut and pasted the page.
Needless to say I believe the revised time is correct.
I am still a bit narked with them though.
As far as the text alerts go - i didn't hold out too much hope for them, and Orange have just confirmed to me why i should stick with O2!
My friend was running and had an injury, so wasn't sure how he was going to get on. His wife was waiting at home for the texts and never got one, so after 2 hours was pretty worried. Fortunately, when he started walking at 17 miles he rang her and reassured her. But I bet she wasn't the only one who was a bit worried having heard nothing.
My parents missed me at their first point because they didn't think I'd passed 10K yet and the 'passed the start line' message they were given (via text) was wrong !
My family heard I had started at 10.30, at 10.34 they heard I had gone through 10k. According to Orange I haven't finished yet or gone past any subsequent points on the course.
(BTW - according to Orange my husband hasn't even started yet!)
I'm warning Orange now... I ticked the box on their website saying I wanted no further offers mailing to me... If I get even just one A5 flyer through my letterbox advertising their services - I'll get very very annoyed...!
The fact is they will struggle to do it next year because everyones opinion will be that it won't work.... wonder how much they paid London Marathon to do this promotion? It was a big waste whatever it was.
Orange say it was the official timers
Does anyone know how I can contact the FLM to ask further explanation?
It has nothing to do with network overload neiher because as Ian states, Berlin worked perfectly and i can vouch for that personally.
What a suprise that Orange blame the timers....